Membership Prepositions

(Under Development)

This category is for senses that establish a relationship of membership between the governor and complement, wherein either can be a member of the genus that the other represents; the salient thing is that the preposition (and very often, along with other words in proximity) state that the relationship is one of genus and species. This discussion of the Membership class of prepositions is based on an examination of the 23 senses identified in The Preposition Project (TPP) with the Pattern Dictionary of English Prepositions (PDEP). This set of senses is discussed in sections 9.54 and 9.60 of Quirk et al. There are 23 membership senses under 19 prepositions. (See Preposition Classes for how this class relates to other classes. For the supersenses (unlexicalized categores for prepositions), see PrepWiki; the PDEP database is being kept synchronized with this project, as they are assigned to TPP senses.)

Category Types

Membership senses fall into two main categories, depending on whether the complement expresses the group or the species. The governor expresses the other (i.e., the species or the group). The categorization is based on the type of the complement, as follows:

Group: the complement identifies the whole of which the governor is a member or where some activity is taking place, 'mongst (2(2)), 'pon (10(4)), across (3(n)) (applicable range), among (2(2)), as (1(1)) (establishes role or function), in (7(5)) (inclusion or involvement), in (12(9)) (proportion of a whole), in common with (2(n)) (reference group), in token of (1(1)) (thing represented), inside (6(n)) (inclusion or involvement), o' (1(1)), o' (2(1a)), o' (3(1b)) (partitive governor), o' (10(5a)) (genus), of (1(1)), of (2(1a)), of (3(1b)) (partitive governor), of (10(5a)) (genus), on (10(4)), onto (5(n)) (becoming a member of), outside (2(1a)) (nonmember of group), outwith (2(1a)) (nonmember of group), qua (1(1)) (establishes role or function), throughout (3(n)) (applicable range), under (12(4d)) (a heading, title, or grouping), upon (10(4)), within (4(1c)) (bounds set by a concept), within (7(n)) (group)

Species: the complement identifies a member or a part of a whole, as (3(n)) (an instance serving as an example, "such as"), by (7(2b)) (name used), by the name of (1(1)) (name used), by way of (2(2)) (in the form of), complete with (1(1)) (additional part or feature), counting (1(1)) (thing included), frae (9(6)) (raw material), from (9(6)) (raw material), in the person of (1(1)) (individual named), including (1(1)), inclusive of (1(1)) (part of a whole), like (7(3)) (such as), o' (3(1b)-1) (contents), o' (9(5)) (species), o' (17(8)) (constituents), of (3(1b)-1) (contents), of (9(5)) (species), of (17(8)) (constituents), of the name of (1(1)) (name used), with (2(2)) (having or possessing as a part), with (5(3a)) (substance used)

Selection Criteria

The membership relation is generally between two noun phrases. Mostly, the complement will be directly attached to another noun phrase, but occcasionally the governor will be a copula or a verb that implies a noun-like group. In some cases, the genus-species relationship may be encoded in the WordNet hypernym/hyponym relations. In many cases, the species may be identified by a partitive noun. In many cases, the group may be identified by a collective noun.

References

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., and Svartik, J. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman: New York.